As expected, The Fate of the Furious repeated as the top choice at a quiet North America box office this weekend. The Emma Watson vehicle The Circle bombed in its debut while the comedy How to Be A Latin Lover and the Indian fantasy film Baahubali 2: The Conclusion had surprisingly strong openings. Overall, the final weekend of April came in 19% lower than last year at this time as movie fans are saving their money for Guardians of the Galaxy Volume Two.
The Fate of the Furious added $19.2 million from 4,077 theaters this weekend, representing a decrease of 49% from its sophomore session. The domestic total for the Universal release is now at $193 million. The F. Gary Gray film should become the fourth entry in the franchise to cross the $200 million mark by the end of the upcoming week en route to finishing around $220 million.
Globally, the film became the latest to cross the one billion dollar mark in ticket sales. The foreign total for Fate is currently at $867 million, with nearly half of its grosses coming from China. Fate’s $361 million haul in the Middle Kingdom is closing in on passing the record $390 million earned by Furious 7 two years ago. Should Fate pass that number, it will become the highest-grossing foreign film of all time in China.
Fate of the Furious also became only the fifth Universal release in the company’s history to cross the billion dollar mark –not adjusted for inflation- following Jurassic World, Furious 7, Minions and the original Jurassic Park.
In second place with a $12 million gross from 1,118 theaters was the Lionsgate/Pantelion release How to be a Latin Lover. The Ken Marino comedy starring Eugenio Derbez and Salma Hayek played largely to a Hispanic audience, which represented approxmiately 89% of its crowd. The opening numbers set a record for the Pantelion division of Lionsgate, beating the $7.8 million earned by Derbez’s Instructions Not Included four years ago.
In third place was the Indian fantasy epic Baahubali 2: The Conclusion. A sequel to the 2015 feature Baahubali: The Beginning, the Great India Films release bagged a huge $10.2 million from only 425 screens. Baahubali 2 took advantage of the quiet box office frame to play on 45 IMAX screens in North America, where it earned a great $1.8 million.
How do you know your film is a turkey? Simple. It’s when your two lead stars are Tom Hanks and Emma Watson, and the movie still can’t crack the $10 million mark on opening weekend. Such was the case with The Circle, the STX release that crashed and burned in fourth place with $9.3 million from 3,163 screens.
Critics and the public were united in their opinions on this one: they both hated it. The former bestowed The Circle with a dire 16% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while the latter branded the James Ponsoldt cyber thriller with a “D+” on CinemaScore.
Rounding out the top five was Fox/Dreamworks’ The Boss Baby with $9 million from 3,739 theaters. Off 28%, the cartoon has earned $148 million to date domestically and an additional $227 million from overseas.
- Beauty and the Beast (2017) (Disney) $6.4 million (-33%); $480 million
- Going in Style (2017) (Warner) $3.85 million (-27%); $37.3 million
- Smurfs: The Lost Village (Sony) $3.31 million (-32%); $37.7 million
- Gifted (FoxSearchlight) $3.3 million (-27%); $15.8 million
- Unforgettable (2017) (Warner) $2.345 million (-51%) $8.8 million
Finally, Disney/Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Volume Two opened in 37 territories this weekend in advance of next week’s global box office assault. The James Gunn sci-fi fantasy scored a massive $101.2 million in its first three days of international play. The domestic opening is currently being forecasted around the $160 million mark, a number that will undoubtedly go higher as opening day approaches.
